Wirehead (science fiction)

The wires of an implanted DBS (deep brain stimulation) device are visible in an X-ray of the skull. Large white areas around maxilla and mandible are metal dentures and are unrelated to the DBS device
Artist's conception of DBS electrodes in the human brain.[1]

Wirehead is a term used in science fiction works to denote different kinds of interaction between people and technology. The typical wirehead idea is that of a wire going into a human's brain and safe amounts of electricity applied to the wire-conductor to directly interact with the brain.

Written fiction

Known Space stories

In Larry Niven's Known Space stories, a wirehead is someone who has been fitted with an electronic brain implant (called a "droud" in the stories) to stimulate the pleasure centres of their brain. In the Known Space universe, wireheading is the most addictive habit known (Louis Wu is the only given example of a recovered addict), and wireheads usually die from neglecting themselves in favour of the ceaseless pleasure. Wireheading is so powerful and easy that it becomes an evolutionary pressure, selecting against that portion of Known Space humanity without self-control. Also in this science fiction there is a device called a "tasp" (similar to transcranial magnetic stimulation) that does not need a surgical implant; the pleasure center of a person brain is found and remotely stimulated (a violation without getting the persons consent beforehand), an important device in the Ringworld novels.

A wirehead's death is central to Niven's Gil 'the Arm' Hamilton story, "Death by Ecstasy", published by Galaxy Magazine in 1969, and a main character in the book Ringworld Engineers is a former wirehead trying to quit.

Niven's stories explain wireheads by mentioning a study in which experimental rats had electrodes implanted at strategic locations in their brains, so that an applied current would induce a pleasant feeling. If the current could be obtained any time the rats pushed the lever, they would use it over and over, ignoring food and physical necessities until they died. Such experiments were actually conducted by James Olds and Peter Milner in the 1950s, first discovering the locations of such areas, and later showing extremes to which rats would go to obtain the stimulus again.[2][3]

Mindkiller

Mindkiller, a 1982 sci-fi novel by Spider Robinson set in the late 1980s, explores the social implications of technologies to manipulate the brain, beginning with wireheading, the use of electric current to stimulate the pleasure center of the brain in order to achieve a narcotic high.

Shaper/Mechanist stories

In the Shaper/Mechanist stories of Bruce Sterling, "wirehead" is the Mechanist term for a human who has given up corporeal existence and become an infomorph.

The Terminal Man

In The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton, the character Harold Franklin "Harry" Benson is implanted with forty electrodes.

Film and television

Brainstorm

In the 1983 film "Brainstorm" a wireless brain connection machine is made. A character named Hal Abramson abuses the device with a signal of never ending sexual pleasure.

The Centurions (animated series)

In episode 41, "Zone Dancer" of The Centurions animated series, the lead character Crystal Kane is accused of "Zone Dancing" (the series' term for computer hacking) and seen using a "droud" to interface her brain with computer networks in what is probably the first animated representation of cyberspace and virtual reality. The story, written by Michael Reaves, weaves a future noir tale of cyberpunk espionage, cloning and private-eye procedural, all set in the universe of the animated series and makes copious references to William Gibson's Neuromancer. There is even a Zone Dancer named Gibson and, in what may be an homage to Larry Niven's Louis Wu, a cyberneticst named Dr. Wu.

House

The title character of the television show House is a physician who suffers from chronic pain. In the episode "Half-Wit", House seeks a medical procedure to stimulate the "pleasure center" of his brain.

Non-fictional examples

Dr. Robert Galbraith Heath actually placed electrodes in his subjects' brains in the 1950s to try to treat their mental illness. Dr. Heath wrote several papers on his work of stimulating the various regions of the brain.

José Manuel Rodriguez Delgado also placed electrodes in his patients' brains. He called his inventions a "stimoceiver" and a "chemitrode".

Pain center in the brain

There is no specific location of a pain center in the brain, so a "wirehead" brain wired to feel pain would not be possible. Pain management can be extremely complicated from this lack of a specific brain location. [12]

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ Horn A, Kühn A (2015). "Lead-DBS: a toolbox for deep brain stimulation electrode localizations and visualizations". NeuroImage 107: 127–35. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.12.002. PMID 25498389.
  2. ↑ Olds J, Milner P. "Positive reinforcement produced by electrical stimulation of septal area and other regions of rat brain." Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. 1954 Dec; 47(6):419-27.
  3. ↑ Olds J. "Self-Stimulation of the Brain." Science”. 1958; 127:315-324.
  4. ↑ American Journal of Psychiatry Volume 111 Issue 11, May 1955, pp. 862-863 dx.doi.org/10.1176 ajp.111.11.862
  5. ↑ Heath, R.G. (December 1, 1963) Electrical self-stimulation of the brain in man. American Journal of Psychiatry 120: 571-577.
  6. 1 2 http://mindhacks.com/2008/09/16/erotic-self-stimulation-and-brain-implants/
  7. ↑ http://www.quora.com/Bradley-Voytek/Posts/The-most-unethical-study-Ive-ever-seen
  8. ↑ Moan, C.E., & Heath, R.G. (1972) Septal stimulation for the initiation of heterosexual activity in a homosexual male. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry 3: 23-30.
  9. ↑ "Paralyzed woman uses mind-control technology to operate robotic arm" by Scott Pelley CBS News May 16, 2012.
  10. ↑ "Bilateral cortical representation of orgasmic ecstasy localized by depth electrodes" Epilepsy & Behavior Case Reports Volume 1, 2013, Pages 62–65. Authors Werner Surbecka, Alain Bouthillierb, Dang Khoa Nguyenc doi:10.1016 j.ebcr.2013.03.002
  11. ↑ http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1511363 "Do-It-Yourself Medical Devices — Technology and Empowerment in American Health Care" by Jeremy A. Green,]
  12. ↑ "All pain is in your brain" author Mary Heinricher, Ph.D.
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